THRILL OF LIVE CONCERTS
LOSE YOURSELF IN WONDERLAND AT SPRING FORMAL
SOFTBALL TEAM TRAVELS TO FLORIDA FOR SPRING BREAK
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YOU SPEAK WE LISTEN PACEMAKER WINNER
THELOQUITUR.COM
VOL. LVI, ISSUE 20
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015
Experiencing community Serving with the community of NOLA in Guatemala BY MACKENZIE HARRIS Editor In Chief
BY ERICA ABBOTT News Editor There are moments in life where we are put to the test. Moments where we encounter obstacles--everyone has them. Over spring break, two faculty members, one Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart, one Cabrini missioner and 12 students traveled to Guatemala--the land of eternal spring. On the surface, Guatemala is a paradise: you see cherry blossom trees dotting the sides of roads, feel the cool breeze and gaze at the fluffy white clouds floating over beautiful Lake Atitlan. On the surface, it is a paradise. But truly open up your eyes and you will see just how much poverty exists throughout the country. Many people might be unwilling to purposely put themselves in an uncomfortable situation. But every spring break, students intentionally give up their break to serve others and put themselves to the test. In Guatemala, we chose to work with the Friends of San Lucas Mission to work hand-in-hand
with residents of San Lucas, many of whom live in extreme poverty. However, we also saw strong people who were working hard to rise out of poverty. In Guatemala, we immersed ourselves in the culture, while completely changing our own lifestyle. They do not have potable water; therefore, we had to continually refill our bottle with spring water. We had to use the same spring water to brush our teeth. But the people who actually live there do not have that option. You cannot flush paper down the toilet because they do not have water treatment plants. Rather we have to throw it out in a wastebasket. Quite possibly one of the more shocking aspects to many technology-obsessed Americans is that an Internet connection is hard to come by. Being able to even use our phones for photographs was a luxury. Many visitors did not fluently speak Spanish. Our North American luxuries eventually became second thoughts though. CONTINUE READING ON PAGE 5
Imagine where your home. Imagine your bedroom, your kitchen, your garage door and your family. Now imagine what your life would be like if water rushed into the entire city and you lost everything. Everything you once knew was completely gone, your school, house, neighborhood, were all demolished. Myself and six other students, two faculty and staff members traveled to New Orleans this past week to help rebuild a house for a family who suffered from Katrina. We stayed at Camp Hope, which is a non-profit organization
whose mission is to serve those dedicated to serving the communities of Greater New Orleans. We slept and ate there every day and then went to work at the St. Bernard Project for four days, where we helped put flooring in, painted, cut shoe and caulk. I always thought I knew what happened to New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit, but that was extremely false. The man who cooked dinner every night at Camp Hope told us that, “A house would have to be built every day for the next 76 years, in order to rebuild the entire city of New Orleans.” That means that 27,740 houses still need to be rebuilt after the
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MACKENZIE HARRIS / EDITOR IN CHIEF
Group of students who went to New Orleans trip (left). Messages left from people during Katrina (right).
Students find themselves in Appalachia BY REBECCA HEALY Guest Writer
PHOTOS ERICA ABBOTT AND AMY HELD
deconstruction of Hurricane Katrina. The Hurricane itself is the first and most obvious to blame for all of the problems that Katrina endured, but reality is that the problems were around much earlier before the levees broke. We worked on the first day at the house on Pleasure Street and went to the levees. I thought being there in that moment was pretty sad and eerie. I cannot imagine all of those innocent lives that were affected. There were times where I totally questioned if what we were doing was even worth it.
Sometimes you have to get lost to find yourself. The destination isn’t the important part but the journey to the destination is. This year Cabrini College students and staff embarked on an 8-hour car ride to West Virginia to participate in Project Appalachia. We set off to make a positive influence in the lives of a family in need. We went with the mission of serving the poor but we learned that money isn’t what makes one rich, love is what matters in the end. One day we went to visit Organ Cave. On the way there we took a wrong turn and got lost in the mountains. The view was incredible and the drive was scenic. We did get back to the cave and had a great time there. This experience of getting lost and finding our way has parallel themes to the work we did throughout the week. Anyone who has ever worked on plumbing knows how tedious and frustrating the work can be. This past week 10 inexperienced plumbers set off to fix the plumbing of an old house. Plumbing is hard and tedious work. Just when one pipe is fixed, a leak will appear in another spot.
We worked to remove a sunken in tub from the first floor bathroom. We fixed the upstairs bathroom that had been without water for over a year. We also fixed the pipes to the upstairs bathroom. These pipes were completely split apart. The work was rewarding because we could see our progress. It was also frustrating because when we fixed one leak, another leak popped up in another part of the house. Going into this week, the only thing I knew about plumbing was that the pipes fed water into and out of the house. I had no idea how to fix pipes or what a coupling was. By the end of the week, Tim, our project supervisor had crowned us all plumbing experts. It was incredible to see that in four days time we were able to start demolition of one bathroom, while simultaneously rebuilding a second bathroom. Throughout the week we grew into a solid team. We all brought different skills to the job site. I worked closely with Sarah and Martin. Sarah was great at cutting out the broken pipes. We stepped back and let her do that work. Martin and I were good at putting up ceiling tiles so Sarah held the ladder for us. CONTINUE READING ON PAGE 5